Maud
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During the late nineteenth century, women in Canada didn’t have many choices. While it is difficult for us to imagine, it was also not unusual for male teachers to show interest in a younger female student. Young women had little recourse in these situations, as teachers were considered symbols of authority in the community. If a man was seen courting a woman, like Mr. Mustard was, then it was also believed she must have done something to encourage him. It would also be one of the reasons why Maud’s father might think that his daughter led her teacher on. Maud doesn’t indicate if she ever went to her father for help, but does mention how he had joked about “passing the mustard” during dinner. Laura did conspire with Maud to make some of her evenings with Mustard challenging. And, although Will and Maud did pass notes in school and their friendship was troubling for Mustard, the amount of help Will provided was fictionalized.
Maud’s use of humor in “A Western Eden” would be offensive to us today, but it does show, as I’ve explored in this novel, a young writer learning her craft. Maud would often use satire to highlight serious situations in her fiction, such as when Anne’s teacher Mr. Philips in Anne of Green Gables, is shown to be a bad educator, not only because of his lack of skill, but also because of his flirtation with one of his students, Prissy Andrews. This was also most likely inspired by her experience with Mr. Mustard.
This novel takes place while Maud is just discovering what it means to be a writer and a woman. During a period where women’s education (let alone being a writer) was considered inappropriate, Maud’s passion, ambition, and dream for education set her apart. She didn’t have the luxury that many women in the Western world have today, of being allowed to choose between ambition and career or love and marriage—or all of the above. Maud eventually would marry, in 1911 at the age of 37, and had three sons with Reverend Ewan Macdonald: Chester, Hugh (who died), and Stuart. By then she had worked for the Daily Echo, had a number of short stories and poems published, and was the bestselling author of 1908’s Anne of Green Gables. Maud and her family lived in Leaskdale, Norval, and Toronto, Ontario, returning to the Island for visits in the summer.
Sadly, throughout her life, Maud suffered from depression. Her husband, Ewan, also had a condition called Religious Melancholia. Both took many different kinds of pills that were supposed to help them, but ended up doing them more harm than good. On April 24, 1942, after dropping off what would be her final manuscript, The Blythes Are Quoted, Maud died in her home, Journey’s End, in Toronto.
Throughout her life, Maud wrote over five hundred short stories, twenty-one novels (one posthumously published), hundreds of poems, and a number of essays. She was a bestselling author who achieved financial success, as well as acclaim from her contemporaries, including Mark Twain. She became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1935, worked tirelessly for the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Authors Association, and mentored young writers, providing the guidance that she never really had as a teen writer.
My hope is that you will find something in my Maud to inspire you to ask questions, read her fiction, and discover your own ideas, your own truth, about who you think she is. And, perhaps, find a story of your own.
Melanie J. Fishbane, 2016
WHAT HAPPENED TO MAUD’S FRIENDS
NATHAN (SNIP) JOSEPH LOCKHART, JR. (1875–1954): Nate completed his BA from Acadia College in 1895 and an MA in 1896. He and Maud continued to write letters and saw each other when he would visit his family, but eventually their correspondence trickled out. When the Spurrs left Cavendish in 1896, he stayed in Nova Scotia to teach, eventually entering Dalhousie University in Halifax and receiving his law degree in 1902. When Maud and Nate bumped into one another in 1901 at Dalhousie, she hoped he would contact her, but he didn’t. They never saw one another again. Nate practiced law in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and married Mabel Celeste Saunders in 1906. That year, the Lockharts moved to Estevan, Saskatchewan, where he set up a law practice, and they had two sons. Nate had a very successful practice, eventually becoming a judge. After retiring to St. Petersburg, Florida, Nate died in 1954. He was seventy-nine. Some believe that Nate was the partial inspiration for Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables series.
AMANDA (MOLLIE) JANE MACNEILL (1874–1949): After her mother died and her father (who suffered from depression) committed suicide, Mollie married George Henry Robertson (1875–1965), from Mayfield, a community part of the North Shore settlements, which included Cavendish. According to Maud, Mollie married George in July 1909 as a last resort, because she didn’t want to end up an old maid. Mollie moved to Mayfield with George, where she lived for the rest of her life. They had no children. Maud and Mollie continued to correspond faithfully, but Maud often complained in her journals that Mollie had lost her youthful exuberance because she was unhappy in her marriage to a man she didn’t love, growing old, sick, and bitter. Mollie’s childhood home later fell into disrepair and was torn down when the government decided to build Green Gables park for the tourists who were coming to the Island to see where Anne of Green Gables took place. Hammie’s Lane and the place where Mollie’s house stood is now a golf course. Maud wished it had been turned into a historical site instead. Mollie died in 1949 at the age of seventy-five.
PENSIE MARIA MACNEILL (1872–1906): Pensie married William B. Bulman (1871–1947) and moved to his North Shore settlement, New Glasgow, in 1898. They had one son, Chester. Pensie and Maud maintained a friendship, but they were never as close as they had been when they were young, and Maud wasn’t invited to Pensie’s wedding, which hurt her quite deeply. Maud writes in her journal about how worried she was about Pensie’s health and that she was working herself too hard. Maud’s fears were well-founded; Pensie died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-four, just when Maud was completing a draft of what would become Anne of Green Gables. Seventy years after Pensie died, Chester found Maud’s letters to her childhood friend from her time in Prince Albert. These letters show how close these two women were when they were young, and how much their friendship meant to Pensie.
LAURA PRITCHARD AGNEW (1874–1932): Maud and Laura corresponded for over thirty-nine years, with a pause around the First World War, and Maud kept a picture of Laura on her bookshelf. After Maud left Prince Albert, Laura continued to court many beaux, including Andrew Agnew, who had to wait six years before she agreed to marry him on June 3, 1896, in Laurel Hill; he was thirty and she was twenty-two years old, and Will served as the best man. They had five children. Throughout her life, Laura volunteered for causes that were close to her heart, such as the Temperance movement, and played organ for prisoners at the local jail. In 1930, Maud contacted Laura as she was coming out West for a visit, and they had a joyous reunion, visiting Laurel Hill and reminiscing about her time in Prince Albert. Laura died unexpectedly two years later in 1932 at the age of fifty-seven. Many people believe that Laura inspired the character Diana from the Anne of Green Gables series. Maud’s 1917 novel, Anne’s House of Dreams, is dedicated to her.
WILL GUNN PRITCHARD (1872–1897): Will never went to university, working instead for his father on his ranch, but Will and Maud continued to correspond until his death of influenza in April 1897, at the age of twenty-five. When Maud found out, she read his ten-year letter and wrote, “It was a letter of love, and oh, how it hurt poor lonely me to read it!” Will is said to be another inspiration for the character of Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables. His photo sat on Maud’s bedroom bookshelf, and when Laura sent the ring back, Maud wore it until she died, dedicating her final novel published during her lifetime, Anne of Ingleside, to “W.G.P.”
FURTHER READING
I’m grateful for the tremendous resources available through the L.M. Montgomery community. Below are some of the research and sources used to craft this novel.
MONTGOMERY-RELATED WEBSITES
L.M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery Literary Society http://lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com
L.M. Montgomery Online http://lmmon
line.org
L.M. Montgomery Institute http://www.lmmontgomery.ca
ARCHIVES AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Island Newspapers, UPEI, Robertson Library http://www.islandnewspapers.ca
Letters from L.M. Montgomery to Pensie Macneill, circa 1886–1894, University of Prince Edward Island, Robertson Library. University Archives and Special Collections. L.M. Montgomery Institute Collection.
The L.M. Montgomery Collection Archives and Special Collection, University of Guelph Archives http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/lm-montgomery
Prince Albert Times, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/PAT/
Prince Albert Historical Society http://www.historypa.com
Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan http://www.saskarchives.com
University Archives and Special Collections, University of Saskatchewan http://library.usask.ca/archives/
Public Archives and Records Office, Prince Edward Island http://www.gov.pe.ca/archives/
MATERIALS ON MONTGOMERY
Bolger, Francis W.P. (1974) The Years Before Anne: The Early Career of Lucy Maud Montgomery, Author of Anne of Green Gables. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 1991.
Epperly, Elizabeth Rollins. The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery’s Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.
___________. Through Lover’s Lane: L.M. Montgomery’s Photography and Visual Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
___________. Imagining Anne: The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery. Toronto: Penguin Random House of Canada, 2008.
Gammel, Irene and Elizabeth Epperly, ed. L.M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Lefebvre, Benjamin, ed. The L.M. Montgomery Reader. Volume One: A Life in Print. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
McCabe, Kevin, comp. The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, edited by Alexandra Heilbron. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999.
Montgomery, L.M. The Alpine Path. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1997.
Rubio, Mary Henley. Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2008.
Rubio, Mary Henley and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, ed. The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889 to 1910. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2012.
___________. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery. 5 vols. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Waterston, Elizabeth. Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2008.
MONTGOMERY’S FICTION AND SHORT STORIES
There are many different editions of Maud’s novels. Here are some of the more recent ones.
Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables. (1908) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Anne of Avonlea. (1909) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Anne of the Island. (1915) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Anne’s House of Dreams. (1917) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Anne of Windy Poplars. (1936) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Anne of Ingleside. (1939) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. The Story Girl. (1911) Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1987.
___________.Emily of New Moon. (1923) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. Emily Climbs (1925) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________.Emily’s Quest (1927) Toronto: Tundra Books, 2014.
___________. “Tannis of the Flats” in Further Chronicles of Avonlea. (1920) Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1987.
SOURCES ON HISTORY AND THE TIMES
Abrams, Gary. Prince Albert: The First Century: 1866–1966. Saskatoon: Modern Press, 1976.
Baldwin, Douglas. Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2009.
Carter, Sarah. Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy. Montreal: McGill–Queens University Press, 1990.
Conrad, Margaret. A Concise History of Canada. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Lamontagne, Manon, et al., ed. The Voice of the People: Reminiscences of Prince Albert Settlement’s Early Citizens 1866–1895. Prince Albert, SK: Prince Albert Historical Society, 1985.
Meacham, J.H. Illustrated Historical Atlas of Prince Edward Island. J.H. Meacham & Co. 1880: Compact Edition. Charlottetown: PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, 2013.
Porter, Jene M., ed. Perspectives of Saskatchewan. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2009.
Waiser, Bill. Saskatchewan: A New History. Allston, MA: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2006.
IN GRATITUDE
If you are reading this in 2017, it has been roughly five years since I began working on this novel. I’m deeply grateful to the many communities of authors, scholars, historians, archivists, religious leaders, bloggers, and friends who took the time out to talk with me about horse-and-buggy math (Silvio Spina and Dad), late nineteenth century fashion (Lissa Fonseca and Jason Dixon), and other random questions (Facebook, my blogger friends, and Twitter peeps, I’m looking at you).
For being an “Editor of Awesome,” Lynne Missen. You changed everything. Thank you for believing I could do this.
For additional feedback, copy, and editorial suggestions: Shana Hayes, Brittany Lavery, Peter Phillips, and Helen Smith.
For tea, scones, and being the Queen of Publicity: Vikki Vansickle.
For connections to Montgomery that are no accident: Liza Morrison.
And to the rest of the Penguin Random House of Canada team who worked on this novel, thank you for all of your efforts in helping to make this book the best it could be.
For believing in this project and support: Kate Macdonald Butler and Sally Keefe-Cohen.
For telling stories and driving with me around Cavendish: Jennie and John Macneill.
For telling stories and the mysteries of Park Corner: George, Maureen, and Pamela Campbell.
For telling stories and allowing us to prowl around Ingleside: Robert Montgomery.
To the entire L.M. Montgomery community and Islanders for providing insight and information—sometimes at a moment’s notice: L.M. Montgomery Society of Ontario, the L.M. Montgomery Heritage Society, L.M. Montgomery Literary Society, and the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island. You are also: Balaka Basu, Linda Boutilier, Rita Bode, Vanessa Brown, Mary Beth Cavert, Lesley Clement, Carolyn Strom Collins, Elizabeth DeBlois, Elizabeth Epperly, Irene Gammel, Kathy Gastle, Linda and Jack Hutton, Vappu Kannas, Yuka Kajihara, Caroline E. Jones, Benjamin Lefebvre, Jennifer Lister, Simon Lloyd, Andrea McKenzie, Tara K. Parmiter, E. Holly Pike, K.L. Poe, Laura Robinson, Mary Henley Rubio, Philip Smith, Kate Sutherland, Åsa Warnqvist, Elizabeth Waterston, Kathy Wasylenky, Melanie Whitfield, and Emily Woster.
Christy Woster died suddenly before the completion of the novel. Her generosity in sharing her research on Maud’s schoolbooks and hymnals was essential to Book One. I dedicate this section to her.
For giving me a place to stay, road tripping through northern Saskatchewan, and finding Laurel Hill: Wendy Roy and Garth Cantrill.
For gathering books, photos, journals, and other artefacts for me at the L.M. Montgomery Collection at the University of Guelph Archives: Jan Brett, Bev Buckie, Kathryn Harvey, Melissa McAfee, Ashley Shifflett McBrayne, and Darlene Wiltsie.
For giving me leads: the archivists who helped me at the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and the Library Archives of Canada.
For telling stories and driving us around Prince Albert—and the map making: Ken Guedo.
For sending photos and documents, and verifying all of the little details: the Prince Albert Historical Society, and its archivist, Michelle Taylor,
as well as Jamie Benson, Norman Hill, and Glenda Goertzen.
For letting us explore the land that was Laurel Hill: Johannes and Emily Van der Laan.
For providing history and context at the Prince Albert Cemetery: Derek Zbaraschuz.
For showing me Summerside, nineteenth-century style: Archivist/Collections Coordinator at the MacNaught History Centre & Archives, Fred Horne.
To the staff at the Oakwood Village Branch at the Toronto Public Library, thank you for tracking down all of those books and being so supportive of this project.
To the many Canadian and American Indigenous writers, artists, and educators who took the time to speak with me, particularly Prince Albert Métis Women’s Association, Wordcraft Circle, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Educator in Moose Jaw, Barb Frazer, and Gloria Lee, a Cree–Métis from Chitek Lake, Saskatchewan.
For the impromptu late-nineteenth-century history lesson and providing me with the cultural framework for this novel: Professor Gavin Taylor from Concordia University.
For providing me with insight into Presbyterianism and growing up Christian: Vanessa Brown, Andrea Hibrant-Raines, Julie Kraut, Andrea Lindsay, Rachel McMillan, and Blake Walker.
For explaining the organ: Edwin Brownell, Jacob Letkemann, and Mimi Mok.
For explaining horses: Felicia Quon.
A number of people also courageously read in part or in full many drafts. Thank you: Kathi Appelt, Mark Karlins, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) group who workshopped the first fifteen pages of a very early draft; Jen Bailey, Kelly Barston, Amy Rose Capetta, Beth Dranoff, Jessica Denhart, Betsy Epperly, Peter Langella, Benjamin Lefebvre, Meghan Matherne, Kekla Magoon, Katharine MacDonald, Rebecca Maizel, Cori McCarthy, Mary Pleiss, Tristan Poehlmann, Simon Lloyd, Ingrid Sundberg; and those who attended the VCFA writers’ June 2015 retreat: Katie Bayerl, Caroline Carlson, Mary E. Cronin, Erin Hagar, Jim Hill, Maggie Lehrman, Lori Goe Perez, Barb Roberts, Adi Rule, and Nicole Valentine.